Ashton Seals celebrates ten years of gasket manufacture

24 June, 2013

Ashton Seals has recently celebrated the 10th anniversary since acquiring the gasket manufacturer Clough (Croydon). It was in February 2003 when the purchase was complete, and within a couple of months the business, including all the plant, equipment and tooling was relocated to Cortonwood in Barnsley and subsequently fully integrated into the existing Ashton Seals’ business.

At the same time a number of key local appointments were made to support the ambitious growth plans of Ashton Seals. These new staff included Gordon Lindley, technical sales specialist, and Peter Young, technical supervisor.

Zoe Fearnley, commercial director of Ashton Seals commented: “Immediately after the acquisition, many existing Ashton Seals’ customers commenced taking advantage of the gasket facility leading to growth of both business areas. So much so, that within 2 years another gasket manufacturer was acquired by Ashtons. This was Roseal who were based in Great Yarmouth.”

In subsequent years a number of new presses have been purchased by Ashtons to complement the existing manufacturing equipment. However the crown jewel of the manufacturing process has remained the Artios Kongsberg Cutting System. Its key benefit is that Ashtons can cost-effectively do prototype work or carry out short or medium production runs.

The Artios also provides an added advantage because by using the very latest in CAD/CAM software, shapes can be quickly amended and permanently stored digitally or on secure disk for future use.

Fearnley continued: ”We feel the continuing success of our Gaskets Department is due to a number of factors, not least regular strategic reviews of our processes, products and services. The whole team at Ashtons are rightly proud of the success story that is our Gasket Department. We look forward to being able to report continuing success in another 10 years’ time.”